How to stop/ease the "guard dog" tendancies
Discussion
Hey!
So our two rescues are fab, they are well behaved and don’t really give us any hassle, on walks they are fine (one is scared of collies and will go a bit loopy, the racist
) but that’s it, love getting a fuss from humans and playing with other dogs.
However they have always been very territorial, anyone that comes to the gates or on the drive/in the house will get a serious barking at. Fivos the larger male just wants to play and say hi, Zoe the smaller female is scared and unsure so barks and grumbles.
This is a good thing to some extent, its a good deterrent and I dont want to completely discourage it, however it can be a pain and very embarrassing when we have family/tradesmen/customers coming around.
friends and family, they bark and run over but as soon as they get a good sniff they stop and tails wag.
Obviously strangers get the continued bark which slowly subsides into a grumble from their bed for 10 mins.
We are looking to start a home business that will mean different people coming and going almost every day, and its not exactly the warm welcome we imagined.
Any idea where to start?
So our two rescues are fab, they are well behaved and don’t really give us any hassle, on walks they are fine (one is scared of collies and will go a bit loopy, the racist
) but that’s it, love getting a fuss from humans and playing with other dogs.However they have always been very territorial, anyone that comes to the gates or on the drive/in the house will get a serious barking at. Fivos the larger male just wants to play and say hi, Zoe the smaller female is scared and unsure so barks and grumbles.
This is a good thing to some extent, its a good deterrent and I dont want to completely discourage it, however it can be a pain and very embarrassing when we have family/tradesmen/customers coming around.
friends and family, they bark and run over but as soon as they get a good sniff they stop and tails wag.
Obviously strangers get the continued bark which slowly subsides into a grumble from their bed for 10 mins.
We are looking to start a home business that will mean different people coming and going almost every day, and its not exactly the warm welcome we imagined.
Any idea where to start?
Can't help with advice but my dog also barks at noises outside or when visitors arrive. He's a friendly, if somewhat timid, Springer Spaniel and has a rather ferocious bark but he barks in a friendly manner with tail wagging etc. I decided not to curb this as it's a good deterrent although it does drive my wife up the wall when visitors arrive.
I have found that with visitors, the best advice is to ask them to simply ignore the dog until he has stopped barking. However, my wife is the opposite and tries to stop the barking which is simply all the encouragement the dog needs to bark more!
I have found that visitors, from family, friends and tradesmen/deliveries all enjoy seeing our dog barking ferociously so I wouldn't worry about the "warm" welcome. It's part of the package when you come to our house!
I have found that with visitors, the best advice is to ask them to simply ignore the dog until he has stopped barking. However, my wife is the opposite and tries to stop the barking which is simply all the encouragement the dog needs to bark more!
I have found that visitors, from family, friends and tradesmen/deliveries all enjoy seeing our dog barking ferociously so I wouldn't worry about the "warm" welcome. It's part of the package when you come to our house!
We have this problem. Although I personally like him barking at the door Missus and next door not so much. We tried ignoring him, talking to him, shouting at him, getting him a treat, a new bell sound in case it was the noise he didn't like. The new bell worked for a couple days. The Missus has been defeated. To be fair though most of the time people at the door are more pleased to see him than us. 
so I don't blame him barking and getting excited. Also tends to have sales people a couple steps further back.
so I don't blame him barking and getting excited. Also tends to have sales people a couple steps further back. The thing is, we are not even talking about when someone rings the bell/knocks.
Luckilly we are tucked away down a private road, but if they are in the garden and someone walks past the gates, or the postie is at next doors door, they run towards them barking.
Even if I talk to someone on the phone in the garden and they are inside they run out barking, thinking im talking to someone outside.
What with starting a dog friendly holiday let business, I want them to say hello to customers, not scare them off and be nasty, not a good first impression.
Luckilly we are tucked away down a private road, but if they are in the garden and someone walks past the gates, or the postie is at next doors door, they run towards them barking.
Even if I talk to someone on the phone in the garden and they are inside they run out barking, thinking im talking to someone outside.
What with starting a dog friendly holiday let business, I want them to say hello to customers, not scare them off and be nasty, not a good first impression.
Nightmare week at work, but I'll put a decent response together over the weekend. I have two Dobermanns, obviously well known for their guarding instinct, but one of them takes it to the extremes. You don't need to walk past the house, if somebody is talking loudly 200 metres away and nowhere near the house he'll kick off! Bare with me and I'll put something together.
Might be worth looking up the work of Tina Bloom, she is a renowned expert in Dobermans.
She has done a shed load of research into the psychology of dogs and human interactions. Including mapping canine emotions.
He is one of hers at work:
I know its so wrong but Dobes look awesome with clipped ears.
She has done a shed load of research into the psychology of dogs and human interactions. Including mapping canine emotions.
He is one of hers at work:
I know its so wrong but Dobes look awesome with clipped ears.
Autopilot said:
Nightmare week at work, but I'll put a decent response together over the weekend. I have two Dobermanns, obviously well known for their guarding instinct, but one of them takes it to the extremes. You don't need to walk past the house, if somebody is talking loudly 200 metres away and nowhere near the house he'll kick off! Bare with me and I'll put something together.
I'll look forward to reading this. I also have a Doberman and although he's only 5months old he likes to bark too. Ours is like a snarling cujo at the window if anybody even walks down the path to the door. Seems to be worse since somebody Brooke into the shed.
Why am I awake? Well neighbour across the street have been in holiday and just got back he's been going wild. ...dogs
As soon as up you open the door he just wants a fuss.
Not sure I want to discourage it though.
Why am I awake? Well neighbour across the street have been in holiday and just got back he's been going wild. ...dogs
As soon as up you open the door he just wants a fuss.
Not sure I want to discourage it though.
Apologies for the delay!
The guarding tendencies from my Male Dobermann have been an issue day in day out for about three years now! We got him when he was 10 weeks old from a well-known breeder. He's from show lines where every dog in the bloodline is titled.
As a pup he was brilliant! He's exceptionally clever which I guess is where the problems for him started. He's active but requires so much mental stimulation and interaction. All the time you're with him training, he really is exceptional. As soon as he's left to his own devices he starts to be a little S**t! Like a lot of dogs, if he isn't given a job to do, he'll make his own role and being a guarding breed you can guess what he likes to do.
We've ALWAYS been very strict with him. We own toys that we allow him to play with, he owns nothing. When visitors arrive, he's told to sit in the other room and has to wait until we say he can interact with them. We don't want him charging at the door for numerous reasons, but we NEVER open the door with him there. Being a guarding breed we don't want him thinking we can't handle the situation and he's there for backup. When visitors some in, we tend to give them a biscuit to give the dog so he knows they are friendly and that we are in control of the situation, we've just forced these humans to give him food.
When he was getting on towards a year old, that's when his guarding got really bad. For reasons unknown, he really took a dislike to our elderly neighbour. I will admit that she has the most irritating shrieking voice (Sounds like Nanny from Count Duckula if you remember that!). We live in a Victorian terrace so the back door to her property is level with our side return. All her visitors come to the back of her house and as soon as they do, he really kicks off.
We have a young family on the other side of us and we have a gate as we're allowed through their garden to put the bins out. Their 8 year old daughter can come in to our garden, and not only does the dog love her to bits, he is so gentle with her.
When the old lady next door makes any sound whatsoever such as her annoying voice, her phone ringing (it's seriously loud!), her TV cranked up etc, any noise whatsoever, he kicks off. He's also like it with other noises and literally stands in the garden when it's completely quiet at night listening, his hackles up and tail raised. Any birds on the roof or fence get barked at, he's alert the whole time and needs the tiniest of excuse for him to kick off. If anybody walks past the house or he can hear literally anything in the distance, he goes in to full-on guard mode. While we can accept he’s naturally a guarding breed and will exhibit this behaviour, what we won’t tolerate is the fact that when he goes in to guard mode, absolutely NOTHING else exists, he won’t come in to the house when called or do ANYTHING he’s told as he’s so in the zone! As I said earlier, he’s absolutely brilliant in a training environment, but when the guard dog switches on, there’s no controlling him. Obedience is one thing, control is something very different!
We consulted with the breeder and did some training with him. He didn’t see the issue, the dog did everything he was told. Whilst walking, you give the down command and he’ll instantly drop to the ground and wait for however long it takes to issues the next command. We explained it’s environmental, he’s an exceptional dog, but in our garden and only our garden is he a complete nuisance.
We’re in a luck position that a well known behaviourist came around to meet him for a consultation. We said there’s no point taking him there as the problems only really exist in the home. She stayed with us for around 10 hours in the end and her parting comment was ‘good luck’!
We tried all the usual stuff to stop him barking such as teaching him to bark so that we can teach him the command to stop barking by using the ‘quiet’ command. Again this works fine in training, but once he’s in guard mode there is literally no point saying anything, you don’t exist when he’s guarding his drive is that high.
We’d never planned to do it, but it was recommended to us that we use him for sport. How often do you see a working or sports dog not doing what it’s told? So, like the picture in this thread, we started taking him to an IPO (Schutzhund) club. There are three main disciplines in the sport, Agility / Obedience, Tracking and then the Protection Phase. Being the enthusiastic and intelligent dog he is and the fact he loves to work, he did of course excel. We used to travel 100 miles each way to train on a Sunday. Was it worth it? Yes, yes it was. While the problems with the dog being so guarding still existed, we had a break through in that while he still kicked off over everything, we did gain control over him. He still kick’s off over everything, but when we tell him to come in the house, he does, he FINALLY understands that when we tell him to do something EVEN when he’s guarding, it’s not optional.
On the training field, a dog MUST look you directly in the eyes (‘Fuss’ command to make it look at you…you obviously have to train it  ). While you maintain eye contact with the dog, they use people shouting, clapping and eventually a starter pistol to distract the dog. The dog is NOT allowed to break eye contact with you. Our dog does of course do this perfectly on the training field EVERY time. In the home of course, this changes, his desire to guard is so high that he chooses to disobey. We had to train / discipline the dog so that we have one set of rules whether it’s on the field with a pistol or in the living room with a noisy old woman next door, rules are rules regardless of where he is and whether he’d guarding or not.
This will probably stir a reaction from some people, but when it comes to dog training, I’m a firm believer of using the right tool for the job. As we’d exhausted every option, I went straight to the end game and bought an E-Collar.
I brought it home, charged it and put it on the dog. I then basically set the dog up for failure. I left him in the garden on a sunny day knowing my neighbour would come out at some point. As expected, the second the door opened, he kicked off. I called him in to the Heel position. He ignored me. I called a second time and again he ignored me. I called a third time and held the pager function button which vibrates the collar. He went completely silent, stopped dead, focused back on me and ran over and heeled (like he would on the training field). The second he was in the heel position, I stroked his left side with my left hand and released the vibrate function. This teaches the dog that my side is a safe place and that the weird vibration stops when I touch him.
Being the extremely wilful dog he is, it only took him a couple of days to start to ignore the vibrate function. As this was now ineffective, I had to up the game a bit and resort to using the shock function. I have of course tried it on myself and will testify that it’s not very nice! Again, when he next kicked off (you never have to wait long!), he was issued a command, then the vibrate function and after that was ignored, he got shocked. He’s a quick learner, so most of the time EVEN when in guarding mode, when he’s given a command, he does it whether it’s to be quiet, lay down or come to heel. When he ignores me he get a vibration around his neck to re-focus him. He knows what comes after that so anything more is never really required. The shock function goes from 0 – 127 and is set at 35, so fairly low.
Is an E-Collar the right choice of training tool…because it is a training tool…for my dog? Yes, absolutely! We train with some of the best trainers in the country who all compete internationally, we know what we are doing. My partner is an exceptional handler and I also work as a helper (the lucky guy who wears the sleeve and gets attacked and bitten). We exhausted every option so was the last chance.
Is it the right tool for you to use? No, it’s probably completely unnecessary. Every dog and every environment is different and need to be looked at individually. Your dog doesn’t sound aggressive so to me could probably learn from some basic socialisation. When you have visitors arrive, go out there and meet them, give them a treat to give to the dogs, get them used to people walking past or coming in to your property. Never set a dog up for failure! If your dog can’t handle being out the front of your property, then remove it from the situation. Teach the dog how to bark on command so you can teach it the quiet command. Try playing with or feeding the dog with you outside the premises and him in so that he associates what’s out there with not always being negative. There’s a cure for most things!
My dog for reasons unknown started to take a dislike to people wearing Hi-Viz jackets! Because of this, I got a hi-viz jacket and used to wear it while feeding him. It may seem daft, but it got the job done!
We imported a female Dobermann specifically to be used for sport, so bought a pup which both parents had an IPO3 (Highest ranking in Schutzhund). Despite being from working lines, the two dogs couldn’t be more different! Fireworks night is always a stressful time if you have animals. Our male things WW3 is kicking off and he needs to go and guard, but the female will sleep by the door, go out for a wee without batting an eyelid and then go back to sleep! All dogs are different and training or correctly really does need to be specific to the dog in question.
As a slight disclaimer, e-collars like any other training equipment, if used incorrectly are VERY bad and I won’t really condone the use of them. Most equipment has its place, but used incorrectly, unnecessarily and without professional guidance can cause more harm than good!
The guarding tendencies from my Male Dobermann have been an issue day in day out for about three years now! We got him when he was 10 weeks old from a well-known breeder. He's from show lines where every dog in the bloodline is titled.
As a pup he was brilliant! He's exceptionally clever which I guess is where the problems for him started. He's active but requires so much mental stimulation and interaction. All the time you're with him training, he really is exceptional. As soon as he's left to his own devices he starts to be a little S**t! Like a lot of dogs, if he isn't given a job to do, he'll make his own role and being a guarding breed you can guess what he likes to do.
We've ALWAYS been very strict with him. We own toys that we allow him to play with, he owns nothing. When visitors arrive, he's told to sit in the other room and has to wait until we say he can interact with them. We don't want him charging at the door for numerous reasons, but we NEVER open the door with him there. Being a guarding breed we don't want him thinking we can't handle the situation and he's there for backup. When visitors some in, we tend to give them a biscuit to give the dog so he knows they are friendly and that we are in control of the situation, we've just forced these humans to give him food.
When he was getting on towards a year old, that's when his guarding got really bad. For reasons unknown, he really took a dislike to our elderly neighbour. I will admit that she has the most irritating shrieking voice (Sounds like Nanny from Count Duckula if you remember that!). We live in a Victorian terrace so the back door to her property is level with our side return. All her visitors come to the back of her house and as soon as they do, he really kicks off.
We have a young family on the other side of us and we have a gate as we're allowed through their garden to put the bins out. Their 8 year old daughter can come in to our garden, and not only does the dog love her to bits, he is so gentle with her.
When the old lady next door makes any sound whatsoever such as her annoying voice, her phone ringing (it's seriously loud!), her TV cranked up etc, any noise whatsoever, he kicks off. He's also like it with other noises and literally stands in the garden when it's completely quiet at night listening, his hackles up and tail raised. Any birds on the roof or fence get barked at, he's alert the whole time and needs the tiniest of excuse for him to kick off. If anybody walks past the house or he can hear literally anything in the distance, he goes in to full-on guard mode. While we can accept he’s naturally a guarding breed and will exhibit this behaviour, what we won’t tolerate is the fact that when he goes in to guard mode, absolutely NOTHING else exists, he won’t come in to the house when called or do ANYTHING he’s told as he’s so in the zone! As I said earlier, he’s absolutely brilliant in a training environment, but when the guard dog switches on, there’s no controlling him. Obedience is one thing, control is something very different!
We consulted with the breeder and did some training with him. He didn’t see the issue, the dog did everything he was told. Whilst walking, you give the down command and he’ll instantly drop to the ground and wait for however long it takes to issues the next command. We explained it’s environmental, he’s an exceptional dog, but in our garden and only our garden is he a complete nuisance.
We’re in a luck position that a well known behaviourist came around to meet him for a consultation. We said there’s no point taking him there as the problems only really exist in the home. She stayed with us for around 10 hours in the end and her parting comment was ‘good luck’!
We tried all the usual stuff to stop him barking such as teaching him to bark so that we can teach him the command to stop barking by using the ‘quiet’ command. Again this works fine in training, but once he’s in guard mode there is literally no point saying anything, you don’t exist when he’s guarding his drive is that high.
We’d never planned to do it, but it was recommended to us that we use him for sport. How often do you see a working or sports dog not doing what it’s told? So, like the picture in this thread, we started taking him to an IPO (Schutzhund) club. There are three main disciplines in the sport, Agility / Obedience, Tracking and then the Protection Phase. Being the enthusiastic and intelligent dog he is and the fact he loves to work, he did of course excel. We used to travel 100 miles each way to train on a Sunday. Was it worth it? Yes, yes it was. While the problems with the dog being so guarding still existed, we had a break through in that while he still kicked off over everything, we did gain control over him. He still kick’s off over everything, but when we tell him to come in the house, he does, he FINALLY understands that when we tell him to do something EVEN when he’s guarding, it’s not optional.
On the training field, a dog MUST look you directly in the eyes (‘Fuss’ command to make it look at you…you obviously have to train it  ). While you maintain eye contact with the dog, they use people shouting, clapping and eventually a starter pistol to distract the dog. The dog is NOT allowed to break eye contact with you. Our dog does of course do this perfectly on the training field EVERY time. In the home of course, this changes, his desire to guard is so high that he chooses to disobey. We had to train / discipline the dog so that we have one set of rules whether it’s on the field with a pistol or in the living room with a noisy old woman next door, rules are rules regardless of where he is and whether he’d guarding or not.
This will probably stir a reaction from some people, but when it comes to dog training, I’m a firm believer of using the right tool for the job. As we’d exhausted every option, I went straight to the end game and bought an E-Collar.
I brought it home, charged it and put it on the dog. I then basically set the dog up for failure. I left him in the garden on a sunny day knowing my neighbour would come out at some point. As expected, the second the door opened, he kicked off. I called him in to the Heel position. He ignored me. I called a second time and again he ignored me. I called a third time and held the pager function button which vibrates the collar. He went completely silent, stopped dead, focused back on me and ran over and heeled (like he would on the training field). The second he was in the heel position, I stroked his left side with my left hand and released the vibrate function. This teaches the dog that my side is a safe place and that the weird vibration stops when I touch him.
Being the extremely wilful dog he is, it only took him a couple of days to start to ignore the vibrate function. As this was now ineffective, I had to up the game a bit and resort to using the shock function. I have of course tried it on myself and will testify that it’s not very nice! Again, when he next kicked off (you never have to wait long!), he was issued a command, then the vibrate function and after that was ignored, he got shocked. He’s a quick learner, so most of the time EVEN when in guarding mode, when he’s given a command, he does it whether it’s to be quiet, lay down or come to heel. When he ignores me he get a vibration around his neck to re-focus him. He knows what comes after that so anything more is never really required. The shock function goes from 0 – 127 and is set at 35, so fairly low.
Is an E-Collar the right choice of training tool…because it is a training tool…for my dog? Yes, absolutely! We train with some of the best trainers in the country who all compete internationally, we know what we are doing. My partner is an exceptional handler and I also work as a helper (the lucky guy who wears the sleeve and gets attacked and bitten). We exhausted every option so was the last chance.
Is it the right tool for you to use? No, it’s probably completely unnecessary. Every dog and every environment is different and need to be looked at individually. Your dog doesn’t sound aggressive so to me could probably learn from some basic socialisation. When you have visitors arrive, go out there and meet them, give them a treat to give to the dogs, get them used to people walking past or coming in to your property. Never set a dog up for failure! If your dog can’t handle being out the front of your property, then remove it from the situation. Teach the dog how to bark on command so you can teach it the quiet command. Try playing with or feeding the dog with you outside the premises and him in so that he associates what’s out there with not always being negative. There’s a cure for most things!
My dog for reasons unknown started to take a dislike to people wearing Hi-Viz jackets! Because of this, I got a hi-viz jacket and used to wear it while feeding him. It may seem daft, but it got the job done!
We imported a female Dobermann specifically to be used for sport, so bought a pup which both parents had an IPO3 (Highest ranking in Schutzhund). Despite being from working lines, the two dogs couldn’t be more different! Fireworks night is always a stressful time if you have animals. Our male things WW3 is kicking off and he needs to go and guard, but the female will sleep by the door, go out for a wee without batting an eyelid and then go back to sleep! All dogs are different and training or correctly really does need to be specific to the dog in question.
As a slight disclaimer, e-collars like any other training equipment, if used incorrectly are VERY bad and I won’t really condone the use of them. Most equipment has its place, but used incorrectly, unnecessarily and without professional guidance can cause more harm than good!
Sidekickdmr - Have a read and let me know what you think. I have no doubt that your smaller dog can be 'fixed' by some socialisation with humans and to help her understand the difference between a perceived threat and an actual threat. Hopefully my experiences will highlight that you have a very fixable problem!
Thank you for the great reply, seems you really did have an issue on your hands and it must have been hard to relax in the garden when he was on guard mode.
luckily our two don’t bark at phones, birds, general noises, its only humans/other dogs.
The female is the instigator, the male seems to follow just for backup.
They are very well socialised, we have a huge family and most of them have dogs, my mum’s got 5 pugs, my dad a retriever and a hound and my wife’s parents a great dane. We have family around and parties etc all of the time, always people coming and going to and from the house.
Let’s say a mate comes around that they have met 5 times before, they will get a running bark until they have had a sniff and a pat on the head, then they go to their bed and they are fine.
Let’s say a gas engineer comes around, or a builder for a quote, they would also get the running bark, but it would continue with them circling him, barking but not getting close, even if I intervene and send them to their bed they will sit there growling while he is drinking his tea and having a chat, it takes them a good 5 mins to stop being grumpy.
This is just an example, and I obviously don’t just let them run upto people in attack mode, but the same would happen if I locked them in the dog room, let the person in and then introduced in the dining room. Basically no matter how I introduce them its the same initial reaction of bark and growl, and then depending on if they know them or not, they may stop or they may continue. We’ve tried a dog treat lots of times, they won’t be interested in it and won’t get close enough to take it, it’s like they are herding them.
We get the same in other places too, for example this weekend we went away with the dogs, we stayed in a lodge, at first they are absolutely fine, happy as larry sniffing about and meeting the owners, getting a fuss. Then we settle down for the night, the dogs realise this is "home" for the night and start to guard as if it was at home, it’s a terriraty thing.
As I said before, on walks they are off the lead, and will run straight past family’s, dogs etc without a care in the world.
In a couple of weeks we will find a good trainer and see what they have to say, I'll report back when we have done this.
Thanks again AP
luckily our two don’t bark at phones, birds, general noises, its only humans/other dogs.
The female is the instigator, the male seems to follow just for backup.
They are very well socialised, we have a huge family and most of them have dogs, my mum’s got 5 pugs, my dad a retriever and a hound and my wife’s parents a great dane. We have family around and parties etc all of the time, always people coming and going to and from the house.
Let’s say a mate comes around that they have met 5 times before, they will get a running bark until they have had a sniff and a pat on the head, then they go to their bed and they are fine.
Let’s say a gas engineer comes around, or a builder for a quote, they would also get the running bark, but it would continue with them circling him, barking but not getting close, even if I intervene and send them to their bed they will sit there growling while he is drinking his tea and having a chat, it takes them a good 5 mins to stop being grumpy.
This is just an example, and I obviously don’t just let them run upto people in attack mode, but the same would happen if I locked them in the dog room, let the person in and then introduced in the dining room. Basically no matter how I introduce them its the same initial reaction of bark and growl, and then depending on if they know them or not, they may stop or they may continue. We’ve tried a dog treat lots of times, they won’t be interested in it and won’t get close enough to take it, it’s like they are herding them.
We get the same in other places too, for example this weekend we went away with the dogs, we stayed in a lodge, at first they are absolutely fine, happy as larry sniffing about and meeting the owners, getting a fuss. Then we settle down for the night, the dogs realise this is "home" for the night and start to guard as if it was at home, it’s a terriraty thing.
As I said before, on walks they are off the lead, and will run straight past family’s, dogs etc without a care in the world.
In a couple of weeks we will find a good trainer and see what they have to say, I'll report back when we have done this.
Thanks again AP
AutoPilot,
Thanks for taking the time to put all that together, it was very informative.
I'm not going to de-rail this thread and will start my own in time as IPO is something I'm looking to do with my Doberman. It was great to read the positive impact the sport has had with you.
Thanks again
Thanks for taking the time to put all that together, it was very informative.
I'm not going to de-rail this thread and will start my own in time as IPO is something I'm looking to do with my Doberman. It was great to read the positive impact the sport has had with you.
Thanks again
Roscco said:
AutoPilot,
Thanks for taking the time to put all that together, it was very informative.
I'm not going to de-rail this thread and will start my own in time as IPO is something I'm looking to do with my Doberman. It was great to read the positive impact the sport has had with you.
Thanks again
Hi Roscco,Thanks for taking the time to put all that together, it was very informative.
I'm not going to de-rail this thread and will start my own in time as IPO is something I'm looking to do with my Doberman. It was great to read the positive impact the sport has had with you.
Thanks again
No problem at all. Our experiences with our male Dobe have been rather trying to say the least, so if I can offer any help or advice to somebody else then I'm more than happy to share!
If it wasn't for the sport (and the people we've met at training!) then we categorically wouldn't have our dog any more as he was literally impossible to live with. IPO has been a complete game changer for us and the dog. He's great at the sport, but the training involved has taught us so much.
I responded to a post ages ago about tracking, so have dug it out as a good place to start reading:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
If you need any help, just yell.
Cheers
Personally I would keep them away from visitors if you are starting a business, just fence them off the main path or out the rooms etc..
Even if you train them to say hello, some of your guests might not like dogs full stop , or even worse be scared of them when they come running down
If you ever get kids as well visit that could be worrying, especially of they panic and run away flapping their arms screaming , not sure I'd trust many dogs in this situation.
Dont want to be negative, my dogs are the same, they charge down the path and look scary but are all talk, I just live with it and manage them so they stay away from visitors, unless the visitors like dogs then they get licked to death!!
Even if you train them to say hello, some of your guests might not like dogs full stop , or even worse be scared of them when they come running down
If you ever get kids as well visit that could be worrying, especially of they panic and run away flapping their arms screaming , not sure I'd trust many dogs in this situation.
Dont want to be negative, my dogs are the same, they charge down the path and look scary but are all talk, I just live with it and manage them so they stay away from visitors, unless the visitors like dogs then they get licked to death!!
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